2009 NZCLAS events

Seminar series on Indigenous Peoples and the State by José Alwyn

José Aylwin is Professor of Law at the Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile and Co-founder of Indigenous Rights Watch in Chile. Author and editor of more than 30 publications on Indigenous rights, José visited the University of Auckland to participate in three seminars on the topic of Indigenous Peoples and the State, co-sponsored by NZCLAS and the Faculty of Law.

José Aylwin: Reform of the State in Latin American Constitutions from National to Plurinational State and Intercultural Constitutions
Mike Smith: The Law of Nature and the Nature of Law
Kingi Snelgar: Māori and Constitutional Change: Options to Consider.
Hosted by Nin Tomas and Kathryn Lehman.

Seminar 2: Media and Indigenous Sovereignty Māori and Mapuche

Joe Te Rito: The Role of Māori Radio in Māori Self-determination in Aotearoa
Tim McCreanor: Mass Media Depictions of Māori in the News 2005-2008
Angela Moewaka Barnes: Indigenising the Screen: Insights from the Kupu Taea Studies
Stephen Turner: First Law, Fourth Cinema and Second Settlement
José Aylwin screened the film Besieged Land with a panel discussion

The Latin Pacific: Latin American Music at the Three Corners of the Polynesian Triangle

27 August 2009Dr Dan Bendrups, Department of Music, University of Otago

The contemporary Pacific reflects diverse processes of cultural crossover and hybridity. In music, it is often the case that island cultures have developed in conjunction with cultural influences brought by a specific colonial or neo-colonial power, and discourses of music and identity often reflect the enduring relationship between colonist and colonised. While many Latin American nations occupy a place on the Pacific Rim, Latin America played only a small role in the colonisation of the Pacific, represented by the neo-colonial Chilean possession of Easter Island since 1888. Nevertheless, Latin American musical influence can be found throughout the Pacific, making an important if obscure contribution to local music cultures.

This presentation provides an overview of three examples of Latin American musical influence in the Pacific, drawing on case studies from the three points of the Polynesian triangle: Rapanui, Hawai‘i and Aotearoa. As the only Latin American territorial possession in Polynesia, Rapanui presents a unique history of local adaptation of Chilean musical influences, reflected in both traditional and contemporary music repertoires. In contrast, Hawai‘i historically received waves of migration from Mexico and Puerto Rico, and these migrants forged a musical community within the wider scope of Hawaiian performance cultures. Their cultural presence has been reinforced through the arrival of new migrants, and by the integration of Hawai‘i into mainstream America where Latin music and cultural influences are abundant. Like Hawai‘i Aotearoa has a long association with American mass culture, and Latin influences have a long history within jazz and popular music repertoires. However, it is only recently that Aotearoa has begun to receive substantial migration from Latin America – especially Brazil – and these new migrants have made immediate impact in live music, especially through their collaborations with Māori and Pasifika musicians in ‘world music’ contexts. These diverse processes of musical migration and adaptation provide an entry point to understanding the little-researched area of cultural exchange between Latin America and the Pacific, reflecting both historical antecedents and innovations in contemporary performance culture.

Cities, Memories and the Challenges of the Future: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Latin America

17 July 2009NZCLAS symposium

Professor Segre discusses President Lula.

Latin American Lecture Series 2009

18 July 2009
Latin American Architecture and Cities Workshop

A one day workshop on Latin American architecture and urbanism hosted by NICAI, NZCLAS and Unitec. Professor Segre delivered a number of talks during this workshop: “The Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro: an Icon of Brazilian Modern Movement”, “Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa in Brasilia", "Evolution of Social Housing in Cuba” and “Latin American Cities”. In the morning, discussions were around Brazilian modern and contemporary architecture and its influence and development in Latin America. This was followed by the opening of the Brazil Studio Exhibition, curated by Cesar Wagner. The documentary film “Breath of Air” was also discussed (courtesy of the Brazilian Embassy – Wellington). In the afternoon, discussions shifted towards cities and social housing, urbanism in Latin America. A number of academics from Urban Design, Political studies, Architecture, History, Arts and Latin American Studies joined discussions led by Professor Segre, Dr Rosangela Tenorio (Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Planning, the University of Auckland) and Mr Cesar Wagner (Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Unitec).

Dr Tonorio and Professor Segre

‘Rafael María de Labra (1841-1918): Revolutionary Liberalism and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico’

7 May 2009Professor Catherine Davies, Department of Hispanic and Latin American Studies, Head School of Modern Languages and Cultures, the University of Nottingham, UK

Professor Davies will discuss the work of Rafael María de Labra, a 19th Century Spanish parliamentary intellectual who campaigned for the abolition of slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico when these to regions were still part of the Spanish Crown.

Professor Davies is the author of Spanish Women’s Writing, 1849-1996 (1998), Contemporary Feminist Fiction in Spain: the Work of Montserrat Roig and Rosa Montero (1994), and has co-authored Latin American Women’s Writing: Feminist Readings in Theory and Crisis (1996), and South American Independence: Gender, Politics, Text (2006). Her current research project is on the writings of Simón Bolívar and women novelists of nineteenth-century Latin America.